DRX stax after inaugural VCT Masters match: “We’re oozing confidence”

In the words of VALORANT caster Arten "Ballatw" Esa on the analysis desk, "domination, destruction, literally so many disgusting words to go after that performance." In the opening bout of VCT Masters Reykjavík group stages, South Korea's DRX imposed their will on Japan's Zeta Gaming, winning 2-0 with a +21 round differential. 

"The confidence comes out of nowhere. We're oozing confidence for no reason," said DRX Kim "stax" Gu-taek in a post-match interview

The confidence comes from Stax and his former Vision Strikers teammates moving to 3-0 in their opening VCT Masters matches with the win over Zeta. Now under the DRX tag, the team is happy to get the win but their sights are set on a much deeper run.

"We've been managing to win all the first matches in the international tournaments," said Stax in a post-game interview, "but it's like the way it should be, so we're not really super, super happy about it."

As for the match itself, DRX squashed all the talk around scrimbux and tagged Zeta Division for their fourth straight win over the Japanese side. DRX didn't resort to tricks or gimmicks, but played simple VALORANT, continually overwhelming Zeta's defense with quick, five-stack site hits. 

On both Icebox and Haven, DRX picked a bombsite and overran the Zeta site anchor consistently. The early round utility was incredibly effective in creating openings for DRX's aggressive pushes and the skill gap between the teams was evident. Kim "MaKo" Myeong-gwan delivered a nasty performance on Viper, ending Icebox with a multi-kill on 50% of total rounds. 

Then, Yu "BuZz" Byung-chul unveils the Korean Killjoy on Haven and proceeds to bury the Zeta defense. It should be noted, DRX held Zeta to a mere 59% KAST% (kill-assist-survived-traded) as a team on Haven, meaning their calls from in-game leader Kim "Zest" Ki-seok isolated Zeta's site anchor.

Moreover, this marks the first game back for DRX's in-game leader, Zest, and he proved to be a valuable addition. "We were all on the same page in terms of how we approach the game," said stax,"like we all understood how the system worked around the team, so it was really nice to have him back."

Zest's imprint on the DRX gameplan was clear, as the team won 89% of their full-buys and were 3-1 in the pistol round. The timings on the executions and understanding of Zeta's positioning was next level.

Again, the focus now turns to winning that second match and breaking the Masters streak. Barring a XERXIA upset of Fnatic, DRX will get their chance at redemption against the European powerhouse and stax has had Fnatic in his mind long before the tournament began.

DRX will face the winner of Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas (NIP) on Tuesday April 12th at 8AM PST.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Valorant news and updates.